


It's the End of the World as We Know it (but I feel fine)

by scrub_fics



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Characters will be added as they appear - Freeform, Hunk just wants food, M/M, No Beta, Pidge and Matt are the new dynamic duo, Poor Keith, Rating Might Change, That'd be great, We Die Like Men, a bed not made out of leaves would be nice too, allura is the definition of the stressed mom faking it til she makes it, but then again, fuck the druids man, he needs hugs, if shiro could stop almost dying every five seconds, lance came out to have a good time but he's honestly feeling so attacked rn, matt didn't sign up for this shit, maybe he did but that's besides the point, okay, pidge is a badass, possibly more ships but i haven't thought of them yet, when is she not, you don't think a handful of disaster kids can save the world?, you may be right, you may be wrong
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-25
Updated: 2019-02-25
Packaged: 2019-11-05 06:13:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17913323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scrub_fics/pseuds/scrub_fics
Summary: In which Matt falls in love, gets the adventure he never really asked for, nearly worries himself into a coma, gains a new family, and shows why you should never piss him off - but not necessarily in that order.Or,The world is in danger, but it's nothing they can't handle. Really, they got it covered.





	1. Take Me to Your Injured (or else they might die)

**Author's Note:**

> I got into a really big shatt mood and so here we are. For once I kinda have an idea of where I wanna go with a fic, but we'll see if I actually stick to the plans

Mages were a rather rare breed to come across. It was an unspoken rule that should you ever meet one, you should do your best to get away as quickly as you could. Now, that’s not to say that no one had ever sought a mage out in a request for help, but those who did were desperate and had no other options. That being said, the people who made deals with mages often disappeared or slowly faded away until one day they just vanished into thin air. 

In other words, making a deal with a mage was the same as making a deal with the devil. There were, of course, exceptions to the rule, but they were few and far in between. The ones who didn’t fall in line to the stereotypical image of a mage were often the ones who hid their nature from the public, as they deemed it safer for all parties. The rest were healers that tended to ask for small amounts of money or ingredients for their potions and medicines as payment for treatment. These were the only kinds of mages that were willingly approached on a regular basis, mainly because they were known for hating conflict and being able to heal almost anything (given that they had the right materials for it). They normally weren’t aggressive by nature, but that wasn’t to say that pissing them off wouldn’t result in unwanted consequences.

The second most well-known unspoken rule was that if you ever made a mage mad, then you better hope that they weren’t a healing mage. Healing mages were generally on good terms with any and all mages (and most other living creatures) they crossed paths with, mainly because they didn’t shy away from anyone. They were friendly and trustworthy – unless, of course, you gave them a reason not to be. So, while the healing mage might not do more then give you something that would make you sick to your stomach for a week, their mage friends might not be so forgiving. Despite being the most commonly approached mage, they were also the most feared because of the small army they almost always had.

Of course, there are beings far more terrifying than mages. Orcs, goblins, dragons, chimeras, and all kinds of other creatures roamed the earth and posed a far greater threat than a mage, simply for the fact that a mage is usually harmless unless provoked – or when a deal was made. Other creatures, however, attack for fun. While mages were perfect for scary stories late at night, it was the monsters of the dark that caused the real fear amongst people. And with the threat of those monsters becoming larger every moment, so did the threat of war. Everyone in the five kingdoms – the Humans, the Alteans, the Olkarians, the Balmera, and the Galra – were aware of this fact. But with this knowledge lied the fact that the kingdoms were suspicious of each other, for there was no way the monsters should be growing as powerful as they were. This implied that they were receiving help from someone, but the question of who was still at the forefront of everyone’s thoughts.

This distrust would surely be the downfall of them all, as none of the rulers could figure out who the traitor was and therefore refused to work together. And surely, there was no way that someone working on their own without a kingdom behind them for support would be able to build an army from the ground up. But when the core crystals that represented each kingdom glowed, the rulers realized that their situation was more dangerous than they originally thought. The core crystals of the kingdoms only glowed when desperate times were ahead – they acted as a beacon, as a warning sign. The rulers immediately knew what it was they had to do and decided to temporarily put aside their differences so that they may find the people who would become the saviors of their world, to find the people who would become the new paladins of Voltron.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Don’t you ever come back here again, you hear me?!”

Matt couldn’t help but drop his head in resignation as a rather terrified man sprinted past him. The number of customers he and his sister were getting were dropping drastically, and he had a feeling it was because of Pidge’s temper. But to be fair to his sister, her anger was usually justified. The young man raised his head just in time to see his sister storm back into their small clinic, anger painted clearly on her face.

“Can you believe him?” Pidge seethed as soon as Matt entered the building. She was pacing in the entryway of their home in the same place she always did – he began to vaguely feel concerned about her wearing a hole in the floor before he decided that maybe figuring out what went wrong was more important. Matt had just gotten back from a quick trip to the town to pick up some food and herbs that they were running low on. Pidge was able to grow most of what they needed as she was more of a mage of nature than healing, but there were still certain things that he needed to buy. In truth it was Matt who was the healing mage, but because business had been slow and his sister was good enough to take care of more minor injuries, he had thought it would be fine to leave her on her own for a bit while he went on a supply run. Apparently, he’d been wrong.

“Well considering how I don’t even know what happened,” Matt started with a small smile, placing his bag on a chair that was used by waiting customers, “I can’t give you an answer.” He crossed his arms and cocked a hip, eyebrow raised in question. “But do explain why we’re one more customer down while simultaneously gaining a whole new wave of rumors about how terrible we are.”

Pidge had the decency to look sheepish at that, having paused in her pacing to stand in front of her brother. “To be honest,” she started, this time with much less anger present in her voice. “I’m not even sure that guy was a customer. He came in and asked if I was the resident healing mage, and I told him I wasn’t. Said you had to make a supply run but that you’d be back soon, and that I could handle any minor injuries or illnesses he had. And I guess he saw some of the plants moving or something, cause next thing I know he’s going on and on about how you ‘shouldn’t have left a non-healing mage in charge’, and ‘doesn’t he know how dangerous that is?’. So, I guess I kinda lost it and told him to fuck off and not come back.”

Matt felt the tension leave his body as Pidge explained what happened. He knew she would have a reason for acting out like she did, and that his trust in her ability to make decisions wasn’t misguided. Still…

“I’m glad you stood up for yourself,” he said, pulling his sister into a hug that was quickly returned. “And I’m not mad that you did either. I know how terrible it is for people to talk about you like that, especially to your face. But Pidge,” Matt placed his hands on her shoulders, bending down slightly so that they were closer to eye level. “We need customers. We’re running a bit low on money, so we need all the work we can get. Now, I’m not asking you to stand there and take what people are saying to you, but at least try to hold in your temper, okay? Or send Rover to get me so that I can deal with it.”

Rover was a small, bird-like creature that Pidge had rescued after a storm had hit a little over a year ago. His wing had been injured and had therefore relied on Pidge to bring him everywhere while he recovered. Needless to say, not much has changed. Rover seemed to be permanently perched on Pidge’s shoulder nowadays, and it was clear that he had no desire to leave. Not that Matt could blame him, of course – Pidge spoiled that bird rotten. 

“Yeah,” his litter sister said in that resigned tone of hers. “I’ll try. But no promises, okay?” Matt snorted, raising a hand to roughly mess with her hair.

“You’re such a brat sometimes,” he teased with a wide grin, ignoring the indignant ‘hey!’. “But I suppose that’s fair.” Matt turned back to his bag, laughing when he caught sight of the glare Pidge was attempting to maintain. She had been attempting to learn how to be more intimidating (and based off the way that guy had sprinted away she was succeeding), but Matt found that he could never be scared of his sister. Scared for her, maybe, but never of her. But apparently, she hadn’t done as good as a job as he thought, as the guy from earlier was back. And this time, he wasn’t alone.

“We came to apologize,” the woman said in a strong and sure voice. She had beautiful long white hair, a tall, rather muscular figure, bright eyes and Altean marks. The fact that she was Altean caught Matt’s attention more than anything. Altea was a ways away from where they were, and the woman didn’t seem to be the traveling kind. But he’s been wrong before, so he decided to focus more on the reason why they were here.

“My name is Allura,” the woman continued. “And this is Lance. He was merely surprised – I can assure you that he meant no harm.” Matt heard Pidge snort, and a quick glance showed that she had crossed her arms and turned her head away. He decided now was probably a good time to start talking.

“It’s alright,” he said with a smile that he didn’t quite mean, hands held in placating gesture. Pidge was the most important person in the world to him, and anyone who hurt her automatically put themselves on his watch list. “We appreciate that you came back to apologize.”

Allura smiled at him, and Matt had to take a moment to wonder if all Alteans looked that pretty. A glance at Lance showed that he had Altean markings as well, only his were blue and Allura’s were pink. A quick once over showed that while Lance was attractive, he didn’t have that same aura that Allura did. Of course, that was probably his slight bias speaking – Lance had made Pidge upset, and Allura had brought him back to apologize. Satisfied that the difference of attraction was more because of their actions than looks, he turned his attention back to Allura.

“I appreciate that you didn’t automatically kick us out,” she responded before a small frown formed on her lips. “I’m afraid we’re in need of some help, and you are the only healing mage that we’ve heard about for miles.” Allura paused at that, a more hesitant look taking over her features. “You…are the healing mage, correct?” Matt let out a laugh. “Yeah, I am. Here, come over this way and tell me what you need.” Out of the corner of his eye he saw Allura following him over to his counter, Lance and Pidge behind her. The two were stuck in a staring match that consisted of glares and little huffs more than actual staring, but as long as no one made a mess of his clinic it was fine.

“So,” Matt started, moving behind the counter before resting his arms on top of it. Pidge moved to sit on the stool next to him, not taking her eyes off Lance. It made him want to snicker – they were acting like the first to look away would lose. Though, maybe they were simply continuing as a matter of pride. He resisted the urge to fondly shake his head at his sister’s antics and resumed talking to Allura. “What can I do for you?”

“Yes, well, you see,” she started, sounding much more nervous than she had when she first entered the clinic. “Our friend was hurt a little under day ago, and we were unable to get immediate treatment as none of us are healers or even doctors. Like I said you were the closest option, so we made our way over here as fast as we could.”

Matt nodded, a small furrow in his brow. Pidge and Lance had stopped glaring at each other and were now looking at him. “So where were they hurt, and how badly? Do you know what injured them?” Allura and Lance exchanged a glance, the latter subtly shaking his head while the former bit her lip. Matt let out a sigh before speaking again. “Look, I don’t particularly care what you guys were getting up to that resulted in someone getting injured enough that they require my help. I’m not about to go telling the authorities if it was something illegal, or anything like that. But I won’t be able to help unless you tell me exactly what their symptoms are, or better yet, bring them here so I can look at them. Or take me to them if they can’t move.”

After a few moments of silent conversation passed between the two Alteans, Allura turned back to him with a sigh. “He was hit on his side by a druid.” That caused both Matt and Pidge to freeze. Druids were…well, they were the worst of the mages. They were the few that would attack people without even being provoked, and they always moved to kill. They strengthened their powers by sucking the life force out of living things and requested horrible deeds of anyone who asked them for help. Getting hit by a druid’s attack and managing to survive was surprising enough, but lasting almost a day later without immediate care? “Pidge, go fill up my supply bag – get all the herbs you can, even if you don’t think we’ll need them.” Pidge rushed off to do as she was told, and Matt quickly grabbed a second, larger and padded bag that resided under the counter before filling it with different bottles of potions, medicines, and ingredients. He noticed the concerned looks on the two Alteans and decided to start talking as they packed. 

“Druid attacks are incredibly unpredictable,” he explained. “There’s no set way to heal one of their attacks without being able to see the damage they did.” Finished with his bag, Matt slung it over his shoulder before taking hold of the one Pidge held out to him and pulling that over his other shoulder so that the two bags formed an ‘x’ across his chest. “Pidge, grab the mixing equipment and lock up behind us.” His sister nodded and moved on to her next task. “Okay,” Matt turned to Lance and Allura. “Take me to see him now. We’re racing against time here, and any time wasted could be deadly.” He knew he was scaring the pair further by the way their faces paled, but he needed them to know how serious their friend’s condition was. Luckily, they seemed to catch on quick. “I’ll take him back,” Allura said, voice shaking slightly. “Lance, wait for the other mage to finish up and then take her back as well.” Lance nodded, obviously nervous by the way he was drumming his fingers along the side of his leg. Allura then turned back to Matt, taking a deep breath to steady herself. “This way,” she said before taking off. Matt let out a quiet curse before chasing after her, doing his best to hold his bags steady as he ran. For their sake, he hoped that none of the ingredients were damaged in the trip.


	2. The good news, the bad news, and then the really bad news

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things start looking up, until they aren't. But with the way the ground is shaking, it was getting pretty hard to tell up from down.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aka: this is why we can't have nice things

“Okay, but what if they don’t make it back in time?” 

Keith felt his eyebrow twitch. “They’ll make it,” he all but growled, sharp canines flashing.

“Yeah,” Hunk mumbled, pacing back and forth as he wrung his hands together. “But what if the healer can’t fix him? Or what if it’s like a curse, and we-”

“Hunk!” Keith stood up from where he had been sitting on a tree root next to Shiro to glare at the larger male. “You. Are not. Helping.” 

“Sorry, sorry! I just…” Hunk sighed and moved over to Shiro’s other side, a deep frown etched onto his lips. “I’m worried. Like I know we just met you guys and all, but still.” Hunk drooped a bit, and his obvious concern calmed Keith down.

“I know buddy,” the half-Galran murmured, glancing down at Shiro's pale face. “I’m worried too. But I’m sure that-”

“We’re back!” a voice called out. Hunk and Keith spun around to see Allura slowing to a stop at Shiro’s feet. Behind her was who Keith assumed to be the healing mage, and upon the sight of him, Keith felt his anxiety and relief multiply tenfold. 

“Okay,” the auburn-haired male started, taking off his packs and laying them on the ground. “Which side was he hit on?” 

“This one,” Keith said, voice somehow remaining steady as he backed up. The healer nodded and quickly kneeled at Shiro’s side, lifting the blanket that they had covered him with. Keith could barely see the side of the healer’s face, but he could see enough to notice the grimace in place. That couldn’t be a good sign.

“Is he gonna be okay?” Hunk asked nervously.

“I’ll do my best to make sure he is, but with how long this has been exposed and considering who attacked him…” the healer sighed. “I can’t make any promises. For now, someone tell me any and all symptoms he’s been having, and I’ll start with treating those.”

“Um, he has a fever, for one,” Keith said once it was clear that neither Hunk nor Allura were going to. But he couldn’t blame them for that – he was barely getting the words out as it was. “And he uh, he threw up once or twice after he got hit. Maybe like, an hour or so later?”

The healer nodded and used a band to tie his hair back before he reached into the larger bag and pulled out two small vials. “Keep going,” he said, and it was only then that Keith realized he stopped talking.

“Right, um. It seemed like he was having nightmares or something too.”

“Yeah,” Hunk nodded in agreement. “We had to hold him down at one point because he was thrashing so much.”

“He passed out about half an hour after he threw up,” Allura added. “And he hasn’t woken since.”

The trio watched as the healer muttered to himself, placing the vials to the side after somehow managing to get Shiro to drink some from each. He then moved into his smaller bag, pulling out a well-used cloth and placing it on the ground before pulling out some herbs. There was a tense silence for a few moments before it was broken by a pair of incoming footfalls.

“Matt!” A voice called out. Keith turned to look at the newcomer only to blink in surprise. The resemblance between the healer – who’s name was Matt, he supposed – was striking. They must be siblings.

“Here,” the girl panted, dropping to her knees by the healer’s side and holding out a rather heavy looking bag. 

“Thanks Pidge,” Matt said, a small smile on his face before he started digging around inside the bag. He had a look of concentration on his face, one that the girl – Pidge – copied perfectly as she stood up. Her eyes looked between everyone in the group, suspicion present but not overwhelming.

“So,” she started, eyes falling back to Allura. “How’d you guys come across a druid?” Keith felt his body tense up at the question, and he saw the others react the same. 

“That is a uh,” Allura started. “Well it’s rather complicated.”

“Something tells me we’ll be here for a while,” Pidge said, crossing her arms defiantly. Her glare gave way to surprise right after a smack was heard, and all heads turned to the healer who hadn’t even looked up from what he was doing.

“I don’t care about their story at the moment,” he said, moving his hand away from where he had lightly hit Pidge’s leg, “and neither should you. But if you’re so insistent on conducting an interrogation, then do it somewhere where you won’t distract me.”

Pidge let out a huff but didn’t argue. Instead she turned to Allura and raised a questioning brow. It seemed like they weren’t getting out of this discussion. Keith internally sulked as Allura motioned for everyone to follow her, stopping when they were out of earshot of the healer. He didn’t feel right with leaving Shiro alone with a stranger, but at the moment he didn’t really have a choice. At least from his current position he could still see them.

“Have you heard about the core crystals?” Allura asked Pidge. The girl nodded, brow furrowed in slight confusion. Keith couldn’t really blame her – the connection between them and the crystals seemed to be nonexistent. 

“Didn’t they light up recently?” Pidge asked. And really, that had been more than Keith had known at the start of all this, so she was already ahead of the game. 

“That’s right,” Allura said. “I- oh, let me properly introduce myself so that you might understand this easier. I am Princess Allura of Altea-”

“Which means you’re probably in charge of hunting down the new paladins, right?” The four stared at Pidge in slight surprise. She wasn’t wrong – in fact, she was completely right – but that’s normally not what someone’s first guess would be.

“But that still doesn’t explain how you came across a druid,” she continued, one arm around her waist while the other rested under her chin. “Druids don’t usually hang out in these areas, and they most certainly wouldn’t have let your friend live if they started attacking you. So how did you manage to get away?”

“Well you see,” Lance spoke up, and Keith couldn’t help but groan. “Shut up Keith!” The half-Galran simply flashed his sharp teeth as a response, which went mostly ignored as Lance started speaking again. 

“We managed to get away and temporarily throw her – or him, couldn’t really tell cause of the hood and all – off our trail for a bit. But we knew we didn’t have a lot of time, so that’s why we left Keith and Hunk here to protect Shiro while me and Allura ran through town trying to find a healer.”

Keith raised an eyebrow. Lance looked proud of himself, but Pidge had a mixture of anger and horror written all over her face. 

“You mean to tell me,” she all but growled out, causing everyone but Keith to flinch. “That you led a druid who attacked you and failed to kill one of you here?!” Her voice rose at each word, and at first Keith was confused about why she was so angry. But then he realized why, and he could pinpoint the exact moment when his comrades did as well. And if they had done what they were beginning to fear that they might have, well. He wasn’t sure they’d live to save the world.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“So, I think he’d probably stable at this point, but with druid magic it’s hard to tell…” Matt paused as he noticed how still the group was. He had come over to tell them that their friend would more or less make a full recovery, as his body had somehow managed to expel a fair amount of the druid’s magic. It was probably the cause of the fever, but he wasn’t totally sure. He had done what he could and made some medicine and ointment that they could use later on. The only issue was that everyone seemed to have become the equivalent of a statue. 

“Uh, hello?”

Matt supposed that was what brought them all back to life, as he was quickly bombarded by a mixture of apologies and yelling.

“Woah, woah!” Matt put his hands up, a confused smile on his lips. “Guys, chill. Pidge, tell me what’s wrong.”

“What’s wrong?” She hissed out, and oh, that was not good. He took note of the way the trees began to sway to a nonexistent breeze, and how some plants began to grow much faster than normal. He braced himself then, because he knew that whatever happened was going to be much worse than the minor incident at the clinic. “They led a druid right to us!” Pidge all but screeched. And Matt. Matt needed a moment to process that, because she couldn’t be serious – right? 

“Pidge,” he laughed, voice sounding strained even to his ears. Even as he tried to deny it, his mind began to go over what he knew of their story, their situation. “Pidge that, they…” He looked at the new group helplessly, a strange mixture of emotions swirling in his gut as he saw them look away guiltily. 

Matt straightened his back, eyes narrowing as he took in each person. “Do you know what druids do to towns and villages? To cities?” He asked after a moment, voice quiet and rather monotone. He noticed that the dark haired one – the one who looked to be part Galran – flinched, however small the action was.

“In case you don’t, let me tell you.” Matt crossed his arms, Pidge moving to stand by his side as she glared at the other four. “They bring absolute chaos with them. They go around and see if anyone would be willing to make a deal, but they do it subtly enough so that people don’t realize they’re there until it’s too late. Then, once they make as many deals as they can, they destroy the town and anyone in it.”

The big guy looked like he was about to cry, as did Allura. Lance was staring at the ground, and the Galran was looking past Matt, probably at their injured friend.

“So let me tell you this,” he continued in the same quiet voice. “If you brought a druid to our town, then you better get them out. Because I am not watching my home go up in flames.” His eyes scanned the small group once more. “Consider it your payment for fixing your friend.” With that Matt turned and walked back over to his bags, putting them in the same position they had been when he arrived – only this time he took the mixing equipment and gave the herb bag to Pidge.

“Um,” Matt turned around to see Allura, a guilty expression on her face. “For what it’s worth,” she said softly, “I’m sorry. But you have my word,” a more determined look appeared as she straightened her back, standing a little over an inch taller than Matt. “That we will not let the druid hurt anyone in your town.”

The young healer stared at her for a few moments before slowly nodding his head. “I’ll hold you to that. And for what it’s worth, I’ll give you a heads up as well.” Matt’s expression darkened as he leaned closer to Allura. “Failing to pay a mage is not the end of the world – the terms can be renegotiated. Breaking a promise to a mage is as good as breaking a legal contract. But failing to do both? Well, let’s just say you better hope I don’t survive if that druid really is here.”

With that Matt moved away, Pidge at his side. He let out a shaky breath as they walked, nerves filling him as they headed toward their town. He had given the Galran – Keith was his name – directions on how to use the medicine and ointment written out on a small piece of paper before they left. But now that his initial anger was fading, he mostly felt fear. If that group really had brought a druid here, then he and Pidge would be safer outside of the town. But there was a chance – as slim as it was – that the druid either hadn’t made it this far or was too focused on their escaped prey to worry about the village. 

A small hand took hold of his causing Matt to glance down at his little sister. She seemed scared as well and seeing him so angry before probably hadn’t helped. It was rare of him to even snap at someone, so what he said back there? Pidge probably saw someone else entirely using her brother’s body to speak. And to be completely honest, acting that way had left him drained. He didn’t like using any kinds of threats, he didn’t like being aggressive – it quite literally went against his nature. And even though it was justifiable anger, that didn’t exactly-

Matt let out a startled noise as Pidge screamed, the siblings falling to their knees as the ground beneath them shook. The healer quickly looked ahead of them, unable to see directly into the town but able to see smoke rising above the tree line. He heard Pidge suck in a breath, and he knew that she had seen it too. He knew what had happened, what had started – they both did. And so Matt did the only logical thing he could think of. 

The healer shot to his feet, struggling slightly to maintain his balance but pulling Pidge up nonetheless. Once they were more or less steady, he pulled on his sister’s hand as he ran back to the group they had parted from. Rover flew beside them, his bags knocked against his legs, the ground shook and trembled and he could distantly hear screams. But he kept moving, made himself and Pidge run faster. He had already lost their parents – there was no way he would lose his little sister too.

“Too late!” He shouted as they came across the clearing, the group losing the defensive stances they had reflexively taken upon realizing who had come running into their small camp.

“Matt? What do you mean?” Allura asked, hurrying over to them with the other three right behind her. 

“He means,” Pidge answered for him, glaring at each person as Matt tried to catch his breath once more. Running with bags as heavy as his wasn’t a good idea. Either that, or his stamina was lower than he thought.

“That you’re too late. The druid’s already here.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is kind of short, I know, but the next chapter is gonna be pretty friggin big so I figured I'd even it out


End file.
